"In this collection Chris Wallace-Crabbe brings together 270 tales of Australian literary life from penal times to the present day. Arranged chronologically, the volume opens with some of the great colonial characters, such as James Hardy Vaux (who managed to be transported to Australia three times) and William Wentworth, proponent of the 'bunyip aristocracy'. Along the way we meet the leading figures in Australian letters, including Adam Lindsay Gordon, Christopher Brennan, Henry Lawson, A.D. Hope, Hal Porter, Patrick White, Ruth Park, Manning Clark, Gwen Harwood, Frank Hardy, Barry Humphries, Elizabeth Jolley, Frank Moorhouse, and Les Murray. All the great literary brouhahas - such as the Demidenko and Ern Malley affairs - are discussed" (- book jacket).
